The Dept. of Justice, 16 state attorneys general and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce sided with the Bells’ plea that the U.S. Supreme Court reject a class-action suit charging them with “parallel action” and “conspiracy.” The suit, by customers William Twombly and Lawrence Marcus, was thrown out by the U.S. Dist. Court, N.Y., but reinstated last year by the 2nd U.S. Appeals Court, N.Y. The Supreme Court has accepted the case -- Bell Atlantic v. Twombly -- but not set oral argument. One source speculated that oral argument would be late this year. Briefs by Twombly and supporters are due Oct. 13.
The U.S. Appeals Court, Federal Circuit, rejected the challenge of Jack Benun -- onetime Concord Camera CEO -- of a lower court’s jurisdiction to bar import of single-use cameras that infringe Fuji patents. Fuji’s legal battle with Benun dates to 1998, when the camera maker filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission seeking to block imports of Jazz Photo’s single-use cameras it alleged infringed its patents. The ITC eventually ordered Jazz’s cameras seized and imposed a $13 million penalty for violations of an exclusion order. In a related case filed in federal district court, Fuji was awarded $29 million in damages for patent infringement. Jazz filed for bankruptcy in 2003 and liquidated 2 years later, selling its interest in 1.4 million single-use cameras to Benun-controlled Ribi Tech. Fuji sued Benun and Ribi in April 2005 and was granted a preliminary injunction barring Ribi from selling the cameras. Ribi argued that once the ITC entered an exclusion order, the district court was prevented from considering import issues involving the same goods. The appeals court rejected the claim, ruling that an exclusion order “does not alter the district court’s authority to proceed with remedies that may affect the same goods.”
Microsoft filed 3 suits against alleged cybersquatters and “typosquatters” as part of a 3-pronged campaign to end the practices, it said Tues. A new wave of cybersquatter trading on recent growth in online ads is profiting from common errors in spelling Microsoft-related domain names. In one suit, the software giant said it aims to use subpoenas to identify 217 “John Doe” URL registrants masking their names via privacy protection services, and in doing so reveal how profitable the practice has become. The suits claim violations of federal and state law.
Polk Audio co-founders George Klopfer and Matthew Polk each will get $83,000 annually under employment agreements they'll sign after Directed Electronics completes its Polk acquisition in late Sept., Directed said in an 8-K report filed at the SEC. Klopfer and Polk have agreed to provide “advisory services” to Polk’s new owner, Directed CEO Jim Minarik told analysts in a conference call.
Companies and utilities don’t realize how much of their critical information is available over the Internet, experts said Tues. at the InfraGard conference. “The amount of sensitive information online should be sobering” to companies and utilities, said Joanne Ashland, team lead for Dyonyx Security.
The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has issued a proposed rule to amend 15 CFR Part 764 in order to set forth BIS policy concerning voluntary self disclosures of violations of 15 CFR Part 760 (Restrictive Trade Practices or Boycotts) and violations of 15 CFR Part 762 (Recordkeeping) that relate to 15 CFR Part 760.
At least 2 potential buyers for Tower Records have emerged as the chain sought bankruptcy protection, blaming a sharp drop in prerecorded music sales.
The Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) inquiry into patent- eligible subject matter is far too narrow, Computer & Communications Industry Assn. Senior Counsel Matthew Schruers told the agency. PTO should study software patents in light of the economic literature and public debate on such patents since the agency’s last software patent review, in 1994, Schruers said in a filing. PTO should consider joint 2002 FTC/DoJ hearings on competition and intellectual property (IP) law and policy “useful models,” he added. PTO’s “lack of hearing or consultation on business methods as a matter of substantive policy is also surprising,” since 2 late-1990s court cases “swept large areas of economic activity into the patent regime without the consent of Congress or the input of the businesses and sectors affected,” he said. A Supreme Court refusal to take up LabCorp v. Metabolite, involving the eligibility of “abstract processes” (WID June 23 p11), “appeared to reflect a view that the issues were not adequately developed in the record,” and in time the high court will accept review, Schruers said. Until then, though, PTO’s review could give businesses much-needed guidance, he added. Regarding whether signals such as those underlying Internet transmission and associated technologies can be patented, Schruers said allowing that would hit ISPs and other “network intermediaries.” Other filers told the agency signals are clearly patentable (WID Aug 18 p4). But if signals get IP protection, “they may implicate secondary or ‘contributory’ infringement risks” for businesses transmitting information, Schruers said. Any change would affect DMCA Sec. 512 and treaties the U.S. has signed, including the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement, all of which limit secondary liability for infringement, he added. Talks at the World Intellectual Property Organization on broadcasting rights have broached creation of a sui generis IP right in signals themselves, which “may conflict with or prove redundant” to a PTO action rendering signals eligible, Schruers said. PTO action also could raise preemption issues concerning state laws on “signal theft,” he added.
The FCC should auction educational broadband service (EBS) white spaces spectrum well before 2010, when a sale is scheduled, the Wireless Communications Assn. (WCA) and others said in oppositions to petitions for reconsideration filed as part of that longstanding debate. Allies of WCA include the WiMAX Forum, NextWave Broadband and Sprint Nextel. They're opposed by the Catholic TV Network and National ITFS Assn., which urged the agency to proceed with caution.
At least 2 potential buyers for Tower Records have emerged as the chain sought bankruptcy protection, blaming a sharp drop in prerecorded music sales.